Page 315 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. 293

city of Cartagena, 300 miles to the eastward ot
Colon; and the Chiriqui Lagoon, 150 miles
west of Colon, a vast enclosed bay with many
islands, giving excellent and diversified anchor-
age, the shores of which are nearly uninhab-
ited. Colon is the Caribbean terminus of the
Panama Railroad, and is also that of the canal
projected, and partly dug, under the De Les-
seps scheme. The harbor being good, though
open to some winds, it is naturally indicated
as a point where Isthmian transit may begin
or end. As there is no intention of entering
into the controversy about the relative merits
of the Panama and Nicaragua canal schemes,
it will be sufficient here to say that, if the former
be carried through, Colon is its inevitable issue
on one side. The city of Cartagena is the
largest and most flourishing in the neighbor-
hood of the Isthmus, and has a good harbor.
With these conditions obtaining, its advantage
rests upon the axiomatic principle that, other
things being nearly equal, a place where com-
merce centres is a better strategic position than
one which it neglects. The latter is the con-
dition of the Chiriqui Lagoon. This truly
noble sheet of water, which was visited by